From Resolution compelling Knesset to discuss firing AG passes 51-0 after opposition boycotts vote
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
A resolution by Likud MK Avichai Boaron to compel the Knesset to hold a special hearing in the plenum to discuss firing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara passes 51-0 after opposition lawmakers walk out of the chamber chanting “shame.”
The passage of the proposal for the agenda item on “the conduct of the attorney general and the damage to the public” comes only a week after the measure was defeated by a single vote, prompting coalition insiders to posit that taking action to fire Baharav-Miara may have less support than commonly believed.
“The proposal concerns a very sensitive issue on the agenda of Israeli society…the governance of the executive branch and its ability to implement its policy,” says Boaron, arguing that the issue boils down to “the question of whether the people govern the country, whether the Knesset is led by the people’s elected representatives.”
“It is incumbent on each of the members of this house to protect Israeli democracy with all their might,” he states, accusing opposition lawmakers of hypocrisy as they scream objections.
During the debate, Labor MK Gilad Kariv yells at Boaron that the security failures of the last year are the fault of the government rather than the attorney general.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin also slams the opposition’s vocal anger, declaring that “this is not how we work.”
Economy Minister Nir Barkat, whose absence from last week’s vote was widely noted in the Hebrew press, writes on X that he supports “a substantive and principled discussion on splitting the role of the attorney general” into two positions: a chief government legal adviser and a chief prosecutor.
“This is a structural problem that requires change” and “I will work together with my friends in the coalition to promote the move in a way that will provide a solution for generations to come,” he writes.
Following the vote, National Unity MK Orit Farkash Hacohen accuses Boaron of being a “useful idiot” while Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar calls it a “sad day for Israeli democracy.”
